


BrentwoodBound

by Manik94



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen, fanventure
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-10
Updated: 2013-09-10
Packaged: 2017-12-26 00:19:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/959330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Manik94/pseuds/Manik94
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>6 friends from a small town a play a game.</p>
            </blockquote>





	BrentwoodBound

 

Brentwood Bound

[ ](http://imgur.com/INdxB3d)

Kyle Ybarrolaza

     A young woman stands in her room. It just so happens that today of all days, the FOURTH of SEPTEMBER, is the much anticipated release of the new game by her favorite studio, simply called SBURB. She’d like for you to get to know her better, if only you could remember her name! What was it again..?

> Enter Name

[ ](http://imgur.com/N6OwQ3K)

     Your name is VERONICA HANEL. You have very recently started attending college in a beautiful city by the bay, and as such you now live in a SMALL APARTMENT that you share with three other girls. You rarely see them, but you think that that is JUST OKAY as you have a small aversion to SOCIAL SITUATIONS.

You have a closeted love of ANIME, as well as a much more open love of EASTERN INFLUENCES. Okay, maybe that shit broke out of the closet as soon as you saw the dub for Madoka, but that’s neither here nor there. You mean, if your love of anime were a Bengal tiger in a zoo, it would be discovered alongside three other animals of different species, all in prison garb, on a Greyhound bus to Mexico, because it just pulled the greatest escape from being closeted in recorded history. Even the Mythbusters were astounded. Anyway, your love for the MANGAS and SUCH is heavily reflected in the décor of your room. Among said décor are many crappy posters of WOLVES, which may or may not involve some sort of NOCTURNAL, LUNAR-BASED SETTING.

Your trashcan is overflowing with PRINGLES, as is your cabinet, and several drawers, because HOT DAMN do you love some potato and wheat-based stackable snack crisps. You are currently burning some GREEN APPLE-SCENTED INCENSE because you think the smell is elegant, yet earthy, something others would describe you as, and you would agree if you weren’t so dang HARD ON YOURSELF.

Your chumhandle is batesianGalactimbibe

What will you do?

> Retrieve Arms

     As a being that exists on a three-dimensional plane and has a constant view and awareness of your own arms, regardless of your symbolic appearance, this command confuses and infuriates you.

> Veronica: Examine Wolf Posters

     You have multiple posters of wolves, all of which you are very embarrassed by, and are not in the greatest quality. You like to think you have these hung up as IRONIC GESTURES, but over time this premise has worn thinner and thinner. Besides, wolves are cool as fuck. Get over it.

> Veronica: Examine Desk

     While you like to keep your room _pretty_ clean, your desk is a different story. Scraps of paper filled with notes for songs and prose and sketches litter the surface. You are quite the artist, though you think you could do better. You don’t like to show off your work unless you think it is your best.

> Veronica: Captchalogue pen and ink

     You CAPTCHALOGUE the pen and ink to your SYLLADEX. You use the BOOK INDEX FETCH MODUS, which simply lists the items in your Sylladex so that you may remove any items at any time. This is incredibly convenient and will likely not cause any pointless shenanigans like your old Fetch Modus did when you were thirteen. Hoo boy, good times.

>Veronica: Allocate your Strife Specibus

     You already did that, stupid! You use a FANKIND Specibus, the choice of which was in no way influenced by the noble KYOSHI WARRIORS of Kyoshi Island. (You know Avatar was not an anime, but you let it slide)

> Veronica: Play an upbeat tune on the keyboard

     You do that. Typically you prefer something a little more haunting, but innocence has its elegance you suppose.

> Veronica: Look outside

     You peer outside. The lush green of your campus greets your eyes. Beautiful trees of weathered age litter the field, encompassed on all sides by the coastal town that has enveloped your life so. The sky is an ashen grey, and a cool mist lies scattered about as the city creeps toward the bay, filled with chilled, dark water. Bridges dot the landscape, and the far off skyscrapers form a vague sort of urban jungle, dense and wonderful, full of secrets and modern myths. The eccentric storefronts beckon you toward the quaint and worn streets, which you would be more than willing to explore had you warmer clothes on.

The subtle swirl of the cumulonimbus constructs foretell of the inevitable temperature, and seem to warn of further chill upon the horizon, past the big city, past the bay and ocean it connects to, and beyond the bridges that seem to serve as lifelines between disparate civilizations. You suppose this is mundane, and at the same time, its maudlin quality is what lends it this poetic essence. Clumsily elegant, and structurally eloquent.

Today is the fourth of September, and you have a strange feeling that today will have an alarming longevity attribute.

> Veronica: Punch dance on your desk and vomit a brilliant fractal

     For some reason you don’t think you’ll be doing that.

> Veronica: Examine rest of apartment

     Just need to double check that no one else is home. You do not dislike your roommates, but you like to have just a little personal space.

===>

     Looks like you’re alone. Phew! This is your LIVING SPACE. It is unusually sparse for someone of your CONSIDERABLE CREATIVE TALENT, but it is shared so that makes sense. It’s a little dirty, which you dislike, but you deal with it. Don’t want to be the weird girl who’s obsessed with cleaning. Well…not AGAIN anyway.

> Veronica: Examine “art” on fridge

     This is you SWEET BRO AND HELLA JEFF MAGNETIC POETRY SET! Sometimes the art just writes itself! This is ONE OF THE WISEST PURCHASES YOU HAVE EVER MADE. Or it would have been, had it not been a gift from your extra-special guy friend! By which you mean your boyfriend, of course.

     It sounds like someone is messaging you!

> Veronica: Answer

     You make your way back to your TABLET COMPUTER and open up your PESTERCHUM CHAT APPLICATION. Speak of the devil!

\-- eireniconBouquinist [EB] began pestering batesianGalactimbibe [BG] at 21:49 –-

EB: heeeeey Verooooonicaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

BG: i believe you missed one of the many ‘A’s that appear to comprise my name.

EB: hahaha, oh yeah. my bad! Haha.

BG: UuU how are you?

EB: oh Im doing fine. amesome!! how about you?

BG: anxious

EB: oh yeah, the game right?

BG: precisely

EB: Ive got mine pre-downloaded. All I gotta do is actually install it!!!

EB: yours is in the mail, right?

BG: yes. it should be here by now.

EB: yeeeeeah?

BG: according to FedEx.

EB: dont sweat it!!! whatever happens happens, right?

EB: why are you anxious?

BG: i don’t know, honestly. i just feel like this game is something big, i guess.

BG: do you understand what I mean?

EB: yeah totally!!

EB: *does not*

BG: /sigh/ U_U

BG: have you spoken with CC about it?

EB: not recently, no.

EB: y?

BG: she seems to know more about it than anyone else does! at least online… plus SkaiaNet has been so tight-lipped about it. I don’t think there’s even any gameplay footage online! I suppose that’s what is making me feel so apprehensive.

EB: I guess.

EB: huh.

EB: maybe I should ask her.

BG: probably.

BG: sorry, i don’t mean to be cold. i just am suddenly plagued by feelings of trepidation.

EB: like before you take a test or whatever????

BG: more or less.

EB: that’s why school is 4 LAAAAAAAMERS!!!

EB: *guitar solo*!

BG: indubitably

EB: oh poop. I uh, have to go. message me when you get your copy so that I can set up the server deal-y! ttyl

BG: U_U

\-- eireniconBouquinist [EB] ceased pestering batesianGalactimbibe [BG] –-

> Veronica: Examine small box on desk

     These are the ashes of your sweet, beloved Mischa. Mischa, of course was your hamster, whom you loved dearly, until his untimely death of old age. You like to keep him close, because he liked when you were near.

> Veronica: Go to sleep

     Nah. You’re not even tired. Besides, this doesn’t even have deeper significance to you yet! What does that even mean? You have no idea!

> Veronica: Eat a whole tube of Pringles

     What Pringles?

> Veronica: Check for mail.

     You peek outside to the mail room. Still no sign of the delivery truck. /Sigh/ Uh-oh, looks like someone else is pestering you!

> Veronica: Answer

\-- ktenologyKingdom [KK] began pestering batesianGalactimbibe [BG] -–

KK: Good evening, Mdm. Imbibe

BG: sire

KK: Haha, just throwin’ around some fancy shit. I’ve got the game all set up, so does CP. When’re we gonna throw down on this mothafucka?

BG: ugh. my copy’s still not here.

KK: Seriously? It’s like 10 at night. Are you still expecting it tonight?

BG: FedEx SAYS that it’s here. even though my mail room suggests otherwise.

KK: Well shit. I hope it comes soon. I wanna get started tonight! It sounds like fun!

BG: I KNOW THAT

KK: DON’T USE THAT TONE OF VOICE WITH ME YOUNG LADY

BG: SORRY BLUH T_T

KK: It’ll be fine.

KK: So, who’s everyone that’s playing?

BG: um...

BG: you, me, EB, CC, CP, and DT, i believe

BG: is KS still playing?

KK: FUCK NO

KK: He didn’t even have a copy of the game! He just wanted to play next to CP

KK: So we told him no

BG: ”fuck no”, was your preferred vernacular, i believe

KK: Uh. Yeah.

BG: U-U such a way with words

KK: ...

KK: So CC is playing?

BG: yes, you’re going to be her server player

BG: oh yeah

BG: are you guys...

KK: Cool?

BG: yes

KK: Yeah we’re cool. I just didn’t know she was playing

KK: Then again, she keeps bringing this game up

KK: ALL THE TIME

KK: Kinda like someone I know...

KK: (Spoiler Alert: it’s you)

BG: i know! but didn’t you love their last game!

KK: Bard Quest?

BG: YES! omigod.

KK: Okay, I’ll give you that.

KK: Too bad this ain’t the sequel to Problem Sleuth we’ve all been dying for.

KK: I swear, SkaiaNet can’t count to three.

BG: haha, yes. what an original meme you’ve invented.

KK: Pshaw. Whatevs. SN hasn’t released a 3rd sequel.

KK: EVER.

KK: And I didn’t exactly take you for a GMRGRL.

BG: i’m not. just for SN.

BG: i’d rather read webcomics and write music.

KK: #obsessed

BG: i am not.

KK: I’m just giving you a hard time

BG: U_U i know.

KK: You still feeling apprehensive?

BG: how would you know...?

KK: EB mentioned that you might be

BG: ...

KK: I find your stunned silence _very_ reassuring

BG: sorry

KK: Hey look, I know it’s weird, being off at college by yourself. When I first got down here I was social anxiety to the max.

KK: Social situations were like, Jason Vorhees

KK: And I was the plucky, impressionable, easily flustered blonde protagonist

KK: Running sexily head first into the knife

KK: *machete

KK: *who gives a shit

KK: *I’ve completely lost control of this metaphor

BG: 0_0

KK: Well shit.

BG: it’s not just that.

KK: Orly?

BG: i just

BG: ...i have a very strange feeling about tonight

KK: ???

BG: it’s like being scared and excited at the same time.

BG: anyway. it’s just a game. i’m being silly.

KK: Don’t sweat it. Or listen to my unnavigable advice either, haha

BG: i’ll take your word to not take your word

KK: ^2 negatives make a positive, Veronica.

BG: but two wrongs do not make a right

KK: I guess you’re right. (IF NOT CLICHE’D)

BG: oh, i think i hear something outside...

KK: ???

BG: IT’S FEDEX. OH SHIT IT’S HERE

KK: YES. LET US SCREAM TO THE HEAVENS

KK: I’ll let CP and DT know

KK: BG?

KK: *The Bee Gees

KK: ...

KK: Man I’m funny.

\-- ktenologyKingdom [KK] ceased pestering batesianGalactimbibe [BG] \--

===>

[ ](http://imgur.com/rDnxsMV)

You run down to the mail room. Oh boy, NOTHING CAN STOP YOU NOW!

===>

A young man stands in his room. It just so happens that today is the day that you and your girlfriend will play that new game she’s been talking about! You and your friends will- wait a minute, what’s this young man’s name?

> Enter Name

[ ](http://imgur.com/HOLqatk)

Your name is ZACH ELSASSER. You live in a relatively SMALL TOWN, and are close to your high-school graduation. If certain events that are about to unfold were to not take place, you would be going to “real” college very soon, and would be the first among your BROTHERS to be doing so, so you know, no pressure. You love your two brothers very much, and look up to them, as you are the youngest, but you don’t really care for their friends, and are surprised that they still live at home. Almost ‘stuck’ in a titular sort of sense, WHATEVER THAT MEANS.

Scattered around your room, (Or more ‘NEATLY DISPLAYED’ as you prefer) are items that pertain to your various INTERESTS. You have a taste for serial television shows about MYTHICAL HUMAN-APE HYBRIDS OF AN EXTRATERRESTRIAL ORIGIN who solve conflict through HONORABLE COMBAT that may include levels of abstract strength reaching absurdly hyperbolic numerical values. Son Goku is truly one of your greatest heroes. Though not to be overshadowed by the GREATEST HERO of all time, Mr. BILL COSBY. A writer, actor, comedian, saint, and all around wearer of GREAT SWEATERS, the man is all of the things you wish you were, and more.

“In order to suCCeed, your desire for suCCess should be greater than your fear of failure.” – Bill Cosby

You try to keep that in mind every day.

You have a love of music and your friends would describe you as an N.E.W.T. student at drumming, but you wouldn’t. But that’s just because you tend to BEAT YOURSELF UP for TINY MISTAKES. Regardless, you try to stay OPTIMISTIC and enjoy the light of the world around you. You love hanging out with your friends, but have trouble SAYING NO, and are kind of stretched thin often because of it.

Your chumhandle is eireniconBouquinist

What will you do?

> Zach: Set fire to the rain

You don’t know if that’s possible, but you’re pretty sure it isn’t.

> Zach: Imagine you are Goku

You stop imagining you are Goku to imagine that you are Goku. It is glorious. Desperately searching for all seven Dragon Balls, what a blast! Goku is not only the STRONGest, he is also the most honorable, and noble.

>Zach: Examine Ghost Dad poster on wall

You do that. It looks exactly like it did a couple of seconds ago.

===>

Surprisingly, your seemingly inconsequential glance has earned you a new level on your ECHELADDER! You have achieved the much anticipated rank: LIL’ BILL! You gain a healthy BOON of BOONDOLLARS in a way that does not sound quite as redundant as that! This is exciting, you suppose. The ECHELADDER stopped having meaning for you and your friends a LONG TIME ago, around your fifteenth or so birthday, when you reached the alright rank of SOMEWHAT-EXPANDED-HORIZONTALLY ALBERT. Your ECHELADDER sure is humorous! In a dated and kind of over-played sort of way, you guess.

> Zach: Message Veronica

The wills of PARADOX SPACE dictate that this is the moment you message your girlfriend, in a conversation WE HAVE ALREADY SEEN. Which ended something like this:

EB: that’s why school is 4 LAAAAAAAMERS!!!

EB: *guitar solo*!

BG: indubitably

EB: oh poop. I uh, have to go. message me when you get your copy so that I can set up the server deal-y! ttyl

BG: U_U

> Zach: Reveal why you had to end your conversation

It appears that in the middle of your SWEET GUITAR SOLO, you knocked over your mini-figure of KNUCKLES THE ECHIDNA, and it collided with your AWESOME CAT, BOOBOO. Cats don’t typically like things colliding with them, and Booboo is no exception. Threw a hissy-fit. No surprise there.

> Zach: Console the Booboo creature

It’s alright Booboo, Knuckles is too cool to hurt you on purpose. He’s just trying to protect the Chaos Emeralds, he doesn’t know any better.

> Zach: Console Knuckles

Uh. No.

===>

You pick up Knuckles and return him to his rightful spot, where he belongs. Everything is back in order. Awesome! Oh, looks like someone is pestering you!

> Zach: Answer Chum

\-- cataclysmicCorsair [CC] began pestering eireniconBouquinist [EB] –-

CC: Zach

CC: Zach

CC: Zach

CC: Zach

EB: yeah?!?

CC: Hi

EB: haha, hi!

CC: I just finished Problem Sleuth!

EB: no way!! I thought you had already played it?

CC: No! I just told KK that

CC: So that he’d stop bugging me about it.

CC: It was SO FUN

EB: I KNOW RIGHT???? it’s one of BGs favorites!!!!

CC: I know,

CC: That’s why I played it.

EB: oh yeah, speaking of games...

CC: Have you installed your Server Copy yet?

EB: not yet

CC: You should probably get on that.

CC: Shit might start getting nasty in a little while.

EB: yeah...that was what I wanted to talk to you about.

CC: Wat

EB: how do you know so much about this game?

CC: What do you mean?

EB: I mean like, skaianet was super secretive about it, but you know tons of things I cant find in any forums or game websites or anything!!!!

CC: Dreams

EB: dreams???

CC: Dreams

EB: ...cant tell if meme joke or just cagey vague answer...

CC: Haha! It was a joke! I’m such a joker! HEE HEE.

EB: ...now cant tell if extended joke or insulted...

CC: I’m joking! Don’t worry! ;)

CC: *:)

CC: **;)

CC: Just install the game,

CC: We can talk about all of this later

CC: TGIF, amirite?

EB: Im your friend, but Im sorry that is not catching on.

CC: ...

\-- cataclysmicCorsair [CC] ceased pestering eireniconBouquinist [EB] –-

> Zach: Install Sburb

You begin to install both the SERVER and CLIENT discs, because that just seems like the right thing to do. It will probably save you time later from having to scramble crazily while meteors rain down upon you...What?

> Zach: Make sweet, beautiful music

You remove your X2DRUMSTICK from your STRIFE SPECIBUS. Whether it’s bustin’ beats or bustin’ heads, gosh are you prepared! If you ever were in a situation which required you to bust heads, that is, which you have not been, nor is it likely you ever will be.

While you are at it, you activate your RHYTHM AND TUNES FETCH MODUS, which allows you to retrieve items from it, so long as you can play the correct DRUM PATTERN to retrieve it! It also doubles as a SUPER CHEAP drum set for the high-school drummer on the go!

It’s a little inconvenient, particularly when you are in situations when you need to be quiet, which is most of them, but you do so enjoy the drums.

===>

[ ](http://imgur.com/qzBfXTZ)

Nothing to do but wait for Veronica to install her disc. You play some sweet beats in the meantime.

===>

OH SNAP. Looks like someone is pestering you!

> Zach: Answer

\-- cryptoPsychologist [CP] began pestering eireniconBouquinist [EB] \--

CP: Yello? Zach?

EB: yeah?

CP: Just testing if this works.

EB: what??

CP: Seeya, champ.

EB: ...

\-- cryptoPsychologist [CP] ceased pestering eireniconBouquinist [EB] \--

===>

...what? Oh, hey! Another pesky pesterer!

===>

\-- batesianGalactimbibe [BG] began pestering eireniconBouquinist [EB] –-

BG: okay, i got my copy of the game!

BG: i already started installing it!

EB: alright!!! mines just about done installing.

BG: okay, connect to me as soon as posssible!

EB: I will!

EB: were doing it man

EB: WERE MAKING THIS THING OCCUR

BG: haha, you always quote that AWFUL moive

EB: I know, its REALLY QUOTABLE!!!!

BG: alright, back to work!

EB: sorry

BG: don’t be! UuU

===>

You are excited! This is about to hapen *happen! You are...

===>

...Now Veronica! You finally have the SBURB discs you were waiting for! Yay! Go you! Whoopee! You are now installing the CLIENT disc, and waiting patiently. What a neat loading screen. The anticipation is killing you! Though it is not all earnest excitement. In the pit of your stomach you feel that growing unease that has followed you these past couple of weeks. All something that had to do with this game.

> Client copy: Finish installing

The client copy cannot be given commands because it’s a fucking disc ya nincomshit! However, by pure coincidence, it appears as though as it has finished installation.

> Veronica: Connect to Zach

BG: okay, i’m in!

EB: cool, Im connecting to you.

EB: ...

EB: okay Im

EB: ...

BG: what?

EB: ...I can see you

BG: what???

EB: Im looking at you right now, on my screen.

BG: wut

EB: yeah.

EB: youre just sitting there...

EB: now you look angry, and confused

EB: and you keep looking up at the sky

EB: now youre back at your computer and look like youre scowling while you read a message

BG: how is that POSSIBLE

EB: I don’t know

BG: wow.

BG: i know SN said that this game would be ground breaking

EB: yeah. this is...

EB: FRICKING COOL!!!

BG: i guess

BG: yeah, this is kind of cool

EB: I can pick things up!!!

BG: CAREFUL

EB: sorry! stopping

===>

Zach carefully puts your bed back down. You’d prefer if it didn’t get destroyed, or destroy something else.

===>

BG: okay, now what?

EB: um...

EB: theres a couple of things I can deploy

BG: okay

EB: the cruxtruder, totem lath, and alchemiter...

EB: *LATHE

EB: I guess ill deploy them

BG: okay

===>

Zach deploys the CRUXTRUDER in your room. What a strange device! it is very large, taking up half of your room, and square, with a cylinder protruding from the rectangular base. A large VALVE is positioned on the cylinder. You attempt to turn the valve, but to no avail! Whatever is inside is blocked by the LID firmly affixed to the cylinder! Darn. It looks like you will have to find some way to remove the lid.

===>

BG: i can’t get this lid off.

EB: do we HAVE to get it off?

BG: i’m not seeing us making much progress otherwise.

EB: okay...Ive got an idea!!!

BG: let’s do this!

> Zach: Do this

You use the cursor to grab Veronica’s bed, and then drop it on the CRUXTRUDER. The lid comes flying off! But Veronica looks a little angry. Uh oh. Oh man. Why’d you have to do that! Shi-you mean poop.

> Veronica: React

What is he doing with your bedOH GOD DAMMNIT YOU CALLED THAT LIKE TWO SECONDS AGO. Well, it appears that that worked, at least. Your bed has seen better days. However, you decide to stop reacting to that to react to the startling new oCCurrence taking place within the CRUXTRUDER. It has begun to glow a light pink! It stops, and a small, sphere-like entity made entirely of light emerges from it. How fantastical and unlikely!

===>

BG: what the shit.

EB: is it talking to you???

BG: kind of.

EB: ??

BG: it sounds like it’s talking, i just can’t understand any of what it’s saying.

EB: hey, look at the cruxtruder

BG: ._.

===>

You look at the CRUXTRUDER, in all caps apparently.

===>

A countdown has begun. It looks as though you have roughly NINE MINUTES and FORTY ONE SECONDS until it finishes. Better get a move on! On doing...something...you don’t really know what.

===>

BG: now what?

EB: I dont know.

EB: Ill deploy those two other things.

BG: do that, i think someone’s messaging me

> Veronica: Answer

\-- doctorsTennant [DT] began pestering batesianGalactimbibe [BG] \--

DT: BG

BG: yes?

DT: have you installed the game yet

BG: yes, why?

DT: what have you done so far

BG: EB deployed the cruxtruder, and we opened the lid on it...

DT: did it give you a countdown

BG: yes...why?

DT: how much?

BG: like, nine minutes

DT: shit

DT: okay here’s what you’ve gotta do

DT: put something in the seizure kernel

BG: i take it that you’re referring to the strange ball of light that seems to be following me

DT: yeah

DT: and deploy the totem lathe and the alchemiter

DT: and the pre-punched card

BG: what

DT: it should be in EB’s inventory

DT: get all that shit

DT: take the dowel thing out of the cruxtruder, put it in the lathe, put the pre punched card in there, carve this totem bullshit, put it on the alchemiter, make an item

DT: and do it the fuck NOW

DT: you don’t have a fuckload of time here

BG: ...what?

DT: just fucking do it

BG: so you’re playing with us?

DT: FUCKING DO THE THING I SAID

DT: NO TIME

BG: 0_0

DT: SERIOUSLY

DT: HOLY FUCK

DT: LOOK THE FUCK OUTSIDE

===>

You look the fuck outside, but see nothing.

===>

BG: i don’t see anything.

DT: just fucking trust me, alright

DT: please do this

DT: so you don’t DIE

DT: so that I CAN KILL YOU LATER IN PERSON FOR FUCKING AROUND LIKE THIS

DT: SIX MINUTES

===>

Jeez, who put bees in her eyes? At the same time, her urgency has you concerned, and the feeling of unease has worsened. You hear two loud thumps coming from the living room, meaning Zach has deployed those other two things. You look at the SEIZURE KERNEL, just floating around, being unintelligible. You think for a moment, then grab the nearest thing to you and lob it at it. This just so happens to be a bottle of INDIA INK. The SEIZURE KERNEL absorbs the bottle, then flashes. When the light clears, the Kernel appears to have taken the form of the bottle, forming INKSPRITE! Which is not terribly imaginative or exciting. It is not any more comprehensible than it was before. You groan and make your way to the common area.

===>

EB: theres this card thing too.

EB: ill just leave it here on the table

EB: oops!

===>

Your table is now lodged in the wall, but you don’t have any time to worry about that. The sky outside the windows has turned a deep shade of red, and you’re beginning to worry about DT’s words. You remove the CRUXITE DOWEL from the CRUXTRUDER, grab the PRE-PUNCHED CARD lying next to your new DIAGONAL WALL-PLACEMENT/FOOD CONSUMPTION STAND and insert both in their respective spots in the TOTEM LATHE.

===>

You use the TWO AND A HALF SECONDS this takes to glance outside once more. The sky has grown a deeper shade of crimson, and all the clouds that protect your city from the oppression of the celestial bodies beyond have infused themselves with the color of panic, which is finding its way into you as well.

===>

[ ](http://imgur.com/dJCrnE7)

Suddenly, a large METEOR breaks through the jacket of moist haze, on a one way trip to the crater formerly known as YOUR APARTMENT. In the immortal words of WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE,

“OH FUCK.”

===>

EB: ronnie?

EB: veronica?

EB: whats wrong?

EB: what’s wrong?

EB: VERONICA

EB: WHAT’S WRONG

EB: ...

===>

You hear your phone ringing, but you pay it no heed. You take the CARVED TOTEM from the lathe and put it on the ALCHEMITER. The ALCHEMITER produces a small object in the same color of your CRUXITE DOWEL, a light pink. You pick it up, your heart pounding on as a sure sign of a countdown, which has only moments left. One minute and forty nine seconds, to be precise, though you don’t know that.

===>

The object is a music box, it seems. You open it and a small ballerina appears, but nothing happens. There is a small knob on the bottom of it.

> Veronica: Enter

You twist the knob. The music box plays a sweet sorrowful melody to the tune of your beating heart, keeping perfect rhythm with the stalwart countdown of your imminent annihilation. As the music crescendos, you take a seat on the ground, as the carpet has always struck you as comfy, though you always feared such a position would humiliate you in front of the shared tenants, you no longer care. You feel fear, reflected in every twinkle of the ballerina’s graceful twirl, mocking your panic with its serenity. You know you have only precious moments. The space suddenly feels so small around you. The music comes to a stop. You immediately turn your attention to the small box. It does nothing at first, then begins to rapidly deteriorate, playing distorted and perverted sounds in the stay of its former delicacy. It is broken beyond repair, and then, it is gone. Your eyes fill with light. This is not what you expected of death. More pain, you suppose?

You shut your eyes tight, but there is no change in feeling of being. Suddenly, a noise pulls you back from your existential stupor.

It is the ringing of your phone. You open your eyes. You have not moved. Your house is still intact, and you feel pretty alive, you guess. You decide the sensation of being is far too metaphysical of a concept to consider at the moment. You walk shakily to your desk and retrieve your phone. You have NINE (9) MISSED CALLS from Zach Elsasser. You smile.

> Veronica: Return Call

You don’t have to, he is calling you again. You answer

ZACH: RONNIE!?

VERONICA: i’m here. i’m okay.

ZACH: oh fuck, Im just-

ZACH: Im sorry

ZACH: Im so sorry there was nothing-

VERONICA: shhhh. shhh. it’s okay, i’m okay, it’s fine

===>

It’s a good thing you earned the GIFT OF GAB a year ago, or this conversation would have to be described in a second person narration! You glance at the dark sky outside.

===>

ZACH: what happened??

VERONICA: i have no idea 

VERONICA: ...Zach.

ZACH: yeah?

VERONICA: where am i?

ZACH: what?

VERONICA: zoom out

>Zach: Zoom out

Veronica’s house sits perched atop a green hillside, next to what appears to be a butte or mountain or something...The sky is black.

===>

VERONICA: where am i?

ZACH: uh

ZACH: I have no idea

===>

[ ](http://imgur.com/RI7SO8h)

THE LAND OF LANTERNS AND FROGS

===>

END OF ACT 1


End file.
